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News: The Spirit of Project 8 Racing
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At the weekend TTRS supported the Britcar 500, 6 Hour endurance race. In qualifying Kristian Dean's Class F Production BMW suffered a terminal engine failure.
With only a few hours until the car was due to race you'd imagine that the car was done for the day....
Kristian takes up the story
"What an unbelievable weekend.
My engine let go on 4th lap of quali and I coasted back to the pits before it died completely. There was a very large knocking from the bottom end, boiled coolant and burst hoses. No compression, wouldn't even turn over. In short, it was junk.
I left the car in the scrutineering area and wandered back to the paddock thoroughly depressed and wondering how to get home that night (I drive the car to the circuit).
I think it was Stu Waite who then said that Nigel O-J might have a 'spare' engine.
I asked Nigel if by any chance he did have a spare and he said he yes it's in the back of the van.
I looked in the back of the van to see a rusty, crusty 320 lump complete with auto torque converter. It didn't look like much but it was complete and it was my only hope of getting a race that weekend.
What happened over the next few hours is still something of a blur as Nigel, Mike Dugdale, Stu and Jim proceeded to rip out the old engine and drop in the 'new' one. It wasn't just a straight swap either as they had to prise off my old gearbox and starter motor etc.
In the middle of all this Mike and Nigel had to drop tools and qualify themeselves! As the session was about to start Nigel appeared back in the paddock with no rear brakes. He'd spent all his time helping me he had not had time to check his own car.
After what must be one of the quickest rear pad changes in PBMW history (Stu and Rob this time acting as pit crew) Nigel was out and lapping quickly.
With qualifying done the transplant resumed.
Then with the tannoy calling our first race to the assembly area Mike got the engine running. I ran and threw on my overalls before jumping into the car as it was dropped off the axle stands.
Sitting in the car in the assembly area was a little surreal. I hadn't even had time to refuel and with a dodgy gauge I had no idea if I even had enough fuel to last me the 30 minute race.
I just decided to forget about all the things that could go wrong and just drive as hard as I could and see what happens. After all I didn't want all their hard work to be for nothing.
As the lights went out I realised that the new engine was an absolute belter. I qualified third last so had plenty of cars ahead of me but manged to out drag a few at the start. The race itself was a dream as the car ran beautifully and pulled like a train down the long straights.
My fuel gauge was reading empty only halfway through the race so i was expecting to come to a spluttering halt any second. Nothing I could do about that so I just kept going.
When I finally saw the chequered flag I just exploded with joy, shouting into my helmet, fist-pumping etc. etc. All a bit embarrassing now but hey ho.
Needless to say it was my best result to date. The new lump had shaved 7 seconds off my qualifying best and taken me to a 2nd in class finish (although still nearly a lap down on Rob Smith before I get too excited).
I really can't thank Nigel, Mike, Stu and Jim and everybody else who helped out enough.
It was an incredible act of kindness and generosity for these guys to give up almost a whole day to help me out.
Without wanting to get all mushy and emotional it really was the perfect embodiment of the club racing ethos.
Needless to say I will owe these fellas beers for years to come.
Long live PBMW (& TTRS)
Kristian" |
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